Offered a job, and it got retracted.

Fibro_Pincess

This is quite a difficult one for me,

I have been out of work since September and on Contribution based ESA.

The problem, is of course, I need to find a job because although my partner earns over the threshold, it isn't enough to live on and pay both our bills and rent etc

I was offered an interview through Reed, the company I was interviewing for wanted me to start on Monday 10th, they were Flexable with shifts.

I went to the interview, and was asked about prebooked holidays...

My tribunal for PIP is Tuesday 11th. So naturally I made this clear, I said it wasn't a hospital appointment it was a tribunal and I couldn't gauge any timescale.

I left and after 5 minutes, Reed called me and offered me the job on the companies behalf.

That was Tuesday.

Today, after sorting paperwork with the job centre, I received a phone call from Reed, the company had retracted the offer because of the "hospital appointment"

I made it abundantly clear that it was a tribunal.

Reed are doing everything they can to investigate, get me a new role, and fix this with the job centre.

My question, 

Where do I stand?

Is it legal?

It was a verbal offer. 

What are my options?

woodbine

I'm sorry to hear that but I suppose the question might be is if this company are like this over one appointment are they people you really want to work for?

Fibro_Pincess

Definitely not. 

But my worry is, can they legally retract the job offer after they were fully aware of the tribunal?

Is it discrimination?

April2018mom

Do you have a resume or not? This is discrimination. Your best bet is to consult with a employability specialist. Get advice. Find another company to work for. 

janer1967

Hi
I used to work in hr I would suggest this isn't good practise as they offered you the job after you had told them about the appointment so they were fully aware when making the offer. As this was through an agency they should query this and point out to the company. Even tho it was verbal offer it is still valid and also the agency no doubt have emails from the company which will confirm offer. If you want advice contact acas.
But like others have said do you really want to work for this company. I would also question the agencies ethics 

Fibro_Pincess

Thank you Janer, I am hearing back from the agency today so I shall ask them for any evidence they have.
I managed to find the ceos email address so I will be contacting him today too